uremalfandomcom-20200213-history
Michaelis 2001/145
My Politics : http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/michaelis/title145.pdf # }|1|I could never understand how a scientist could be a Conservative. His vocation to discover new knowledge must lead to progress, if applied for the benefit of mankind, the Scientific Temper. Of course, if he is engaged on war research, and to do so is his own free choice, then voting conservative will only lead to a continuation of war preparations, and that may well be his decision. Fortunately I was never placed in this situation of ethical conflict. I have always believed that science must be used for the good of all mankind. Title 105 where I have tried to explain my Belief.Michaelis 2001/145#Michaelis 2001/145_1}} # }|2|I have once been a member of a political party, the British Labour Party, for about one year, in 1945, after the end of World War II. This was then the general feeling in England, at the time when Winston Churchill was defeated in the General Election of 1945. I was then proposed as a membef of the executive committee, and later as the treasurer, of the Association of Scientific Workers. However, when I found out that the Committee was of strong communist persuasion, I promptly resigned as a committee member and also from the Labour Party. These were my only active participations in Politics.Michaelis 2001/145#Michaelis 2001/145_2 }} # }|3|While living in England for 63 years of my life, from 1933 when I was 17, until 1996 when I was 80, I never found a political party which I could wholeheartedly support. None advocated science sufficiently strongly as a means of solving the many problems of the country. Following the example of my father, who voted in the 1920s for the Central Party in Germany, although Roman Catholic dominated, and following the image of Mr Oldershaw, my tutor in Maidenhead, who had tried to be elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament but had failed, I was so impressed by these two outstanding men, that I wanted to conform to their example in my own life. I became, and am still today, a progressive liberal and whenever there is a chance to vote, I give my support to that party.Michaelis 2001/145#Michaelis 2001/145_3 }} # }|4|I have seen very few instances when science entered the field of politics at all. This occurred on very rare occasions in the House of Lords. Title 369 Apart from the Hereditary Peers, a not insignificant number of eminent scientists and engineers were awarded Life Peerages and occasionally debated science in its various aspects. I knew a few of them, Lord Todd Member of the ISR Editorial Board, the Earl of Bessborough, Viscount Hanworth, close personal friend: see Titles 36 and 37, Lord Shackleton, Lord Ezra, Lord Ashby Board Member and Lord Porter Board Member. Lord Ritchie-Calder has so far been the only science writer to be awarded a Life Peerage and I wrote about his Maiden Speech in the House of Lords, which was published in the Daily Telegruph on 27 October, 1966.Michaelis 2001/145#Michaelis 2001/145_4}}